JEDDAH (Dispatches) – Saudi Arabia has kicked off a weekend summit in Jeddah, in which senior officials from some 40 countries – but not Russia – will aim to draft key principles on how to end the war on Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday welcomed the wide range of countries represented in the talks that began on Saturday, including developing countries hit hard by the surge in food prices triggered by the war.
“This is very important because, on issues such as food security, the fate of millions of people in Africa, Asia and other parts of the world directly depends on how fast the world moves to implement the peace formula,” he said.
Russia last month halted its participation in a United Nations-brokered grain deal that enabled the shipment of Ukrainian produce through the Black Sea to parts of the world struggling with hunger.
Zelenskyy said he hoped the initiative will lead to a “peace summit” of world leaders this autumn.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week that Russia would “need to understand what goals are set and what will be discussed”.
“Any attempt to promote a peaceful settlement deserves a positive evaluation,” he said.
Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from Kyiv, said the summit was important for Ukraine as it presented an opportunity to reach out to nations that have remained neutral, including India and Brazil.
Especially significant was the attendance of China, a staunch Russian ally. “What Ukraine really hopes is that China will endorse Zelenskyy’s peace plan,” Vaessen added.
Furthermore, ever since the beginning of the war, Western countries, led by the United States, have been pumping Ukraine full of tens of billions of dollars worth of advanced weapons, a step that Moscow says would only prolong the hostilities.
Responding to a survey, most Americans have said that the U.S. should stop short of providing more military assistance for Ukraine, which Washington has shored up with billions of dollars since Russia launched a military operation against the ex-Soviet republic.
Results from the poll that was conducted by CNN between July 1 and 31 among 1,279 American adults, were out on Friday.
Fifty-five percent of those surveyed said the U.S. Congress should not authorize additional military aid for Ukraine, as opposed to 45 percent, who said the Capitol should approve of such funding.
Reporting last month, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German research institute, revealed that the U.S. had channeled a total of $75 billion to Ukraine since last February when Moscow launched the operation.
In the latest development on the ground, a Russian tanker was damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Kerch Strait, briefly halting traffic on the strategic bridge linking Crimea to Russia on Saturday, a day after one of Moscow’s warships was hit in the Black Sea.
The number of attacks in the Black Sea has increased from both sides since Moscow exited a deal last month that had allowed Ukrainian grain exports via the shipping hub during the conflict between the two countries.